Hard to believe its mid November? Isn't it?
In the last post, I ponder how time flies. It certainly does. Seems like only yesterday that we were dealing with Christmas and New Years. Fortunately, It looks like our travel session has been put off until mid January. That has made many of our travellers much happier. I guess I am happier too. It will make the work harder on site, but it gives us much more time to prepare for the onslaught.
I did something this year that I have never done before. I took vacation between Christmas and New Years. One of the benefits of my job is vacation that is based on percentages of the hours you work. I was able to take vacation in September and still have plenty of time off. I actually still have 5 or 6 days even counting what I plan on using over the holidays. Never had that kind of luxary in a job before. The extra days carry over to next year as well.. so I'm not under the gun to use them.
We did something else different this year. Mom and Dad's neighbors all decided that we would go out to eat on Halloween night instead of being bombarded by the onslaught of trick or treaters. No one has anything against the holiday or anything like that. It has become overblown. Instead of the local neighborhood kids from town, we get vans of kids from nearby Ohio and other local communities. I remember one Halloween where we counted over 400 tricker treaters.. and we live in a little town. Dinner was good and we had a good time chatting and talking about other things we could do as neighbors and friends. Dinner was much better than handing out treats to 18 year old "Kids" that don't even put on makeup or dress as something different.
The holidays bring both good and bad emotions. We have lots of laughs when we get together. There are usually tears when someone gets that 'special' gift or gets 'pranked'. There's a pea soup green hat and socks roaming around the family that shows up every few years... bleh! We miss the ones who are no longer with us. We look forward to seeing those who live out of town.
Happy Thanksgiving and don't eat too much!
In the last post, I ponder how time flies. It certainly does. Seems like only yesterday that we were dealing with Christmas and New Years. Fortunately, It looks like our travel session has been put off until mid January. That has made many of our travellers much happier. I guess I am happier too. It will make the work harder on site, but it gives us much more time to prepare for the onslaught.
I did something this year that I have never done before. I took vacation between Christmas and New Years. One of the benefits of my job is vacation that is based on percentages of the hours you work. I was able to take vacation in September and still have plenty of time off. I actually still have 5 or 6 days even counting what I plan on using over the holidays. Never had that kind of luxary in a job before. The extra days carry over to next year as well.. so I'm not under the gun to use them.
We did something else different this year. Mom and Dad's neighbors all decided that we would go out to eat on Halloween night instead of being bombarded by the onslaught of trick or treaters. No one has anything against the holiday or anything like that. It has become overblown. Instead of the local neighborhood kids from town, we get vans of kids from nearby Ohio and other local communities. I remember one Halloween where we counted over 400 tricker treaters.. and we live in a little town. Dinner was good and we had a good time chatting and talking about other things we could do as neighbors and friends. Dinner was much better than handing out treats to 18 year old "Kids" that don't even put on makeup or dress as something different.
The holidays bring both good and bad emotions. We have lots of laughs when we get together. There are usually tears when someone gets that 'special' gift or gets 'pranked'. There's a pea soup green hat and socks roaming around the family that shows up every few years... bleh! We miss the ones who are no longer with us. We look forward to seeing those who live out of town.
Happy Thanksgiving and don't eat too much!
Curtis
